For nearly four years, construction noises have been a fixture of the daily commute through the Brussels-Central station.
While passengers are set to endure another two years of works, visible progress has been made behind the scenes on what will be a revamped and expanded metro station.
The capital's transport operator, STIB/MVIB, is carrying out the works to expand and renovate the station, which is set to fully re-open by the end of next year. The project is expected to almost double its surface area, adding floor spaces, shops, new entrances, and glass roofs.
Last week, The Brussels Times was able to visit the extensive construction site, which spans two floors under the Place Marché au Bois and Square de la Maturité.
Much of the site is still exposed to the elements, with poor weather having been the main cause of the slight delays to the project, the STIB stays. The new lobby will be mostly covered up over the next phase of the works, with two glass roofs to be installed.
Credit: Vicente Torre Hovelson
"Since it opened in 1969, the station had never undergone any kind of in-depth renovation," points out STIB spokesperson Laurent Vermeersch.
Around 50,000 passengers were passing through the station each day before the renovation began, a daily average which the STIB says the previous layout of the station was not suited for.
Thousands of Manneken Pis statues
The next major change to the construction site will concern the temporary hallway which links the underground station to the entrances by Rue Ravenstein.
This passageway, which currently splits the future new lobby in half, will be moved across the Square de la Maturité and closer to the underground tracks "in two to three weeks", Vermeersch told The Brussels Times.
The majority of the excavation work is now complete, barring another section to be carved out under Rue des Colonies, and the remainder of the project mainly concerns finalising the layout of the new spaces.
The first underground level has more than doubled in floor space, from 1.600 m2 to 3.500 m2, while the metro station as a whole will be 88% bigger once the works are finished.
According to last year's figures, 590 tonnes of steel had been used so far on the site — the equivalent of 36,000 Manneken Pis statues, STIB points out. As of January 2026, the figure has risen to 853 tonnes.
Credit: Vicente Torre Hovelson
Around 30,000 tonnes of earth had been cleared to make way for the two floors using secant pile walls (reinforced concrete drilled into the ground to use as guides), amounting to two-thirds the size of the Lion's Mound in Waterloo.
The expanded station is set to open in several stages, with the first of the underground lobbies, expected to open to passengers at the start of 2027, at which point the temporary hallway will be removed. Works will then continue underneath Rue du Cardinal Mercier to finalise the renovation.
There will be three additional entrances around the Square de la Maturité, including a new elevator directly linking the street level to the metro platforms in order to improve access for people with reduced mobility.
Shops and cafés will also be opened on the level below the lobby, although exactly which businesses will occupy the new space remains unknown for now. "You'll be able to see the tracks from them," explains the site's project manager, adding that the layout will be the first of its kind among metro stations in the Belgian capital.
Credit: Vicente Torre Hovelson / The Brussels Times
The lengthiness of the project, the STIB spokesperson points out, is due to the fact that the station will not have been closed at any stage of the expansion.
As has been the case since the start of the extension works, metro traffic through the station will continue to operate as normal for the remainder of the project. The underground works, which have been carried out around a strict perimeter away from the platforms, have mostly taken place at night.
La Maturité statues to remain for now
The STIB says it will restore the Square de la Maturité and the rest of area at street-level to its layout before the start of the works.
The collection of Victor Rousseau statues, La Maturité, which stand in the middle of the square and were initially slated for removal will now remain in place. Any decision on further works on the square itself will be up to the city, which is responsible for developments at the surface.
The entire project will cost around €48 million, the STIB has confirmed. The increase from an initial €35 million was first announced in March of last year by Elke Van den Brandt, the outgoing Minister of Mobility of the Brussels-Capital Region.
The project is co-financed by the STIB, Bruxelles Mobilité, and Beliris (the cooperation body between the Belgian government and the Capital Region).
